1.1.10-Columbina
Brick!Club: 1.1.10, 1.1.11, 1.1.12 Okay, three in one as I desperately try and catch up, knowing full well I will probably fall behind again tomorrow, because I have a big day of training for my new position at the Maritime Museum, woop woop! I don’t really have strong opinions about any of these chapters, I’m sorry D: That’s probably the other reason I’ve fallen behind - no matter how busy I am with Life things, if there’s something I really really want to talk to the internet about, I’ll probably find time. Still, have some hodge podge slightly tipsy thoughts from yours truly. 1.1.10 The Bishop in the Presence of an Unknown Light I really liked that after however many chapters of me finding the Bishop less and less perfect in his perfection, Hugo turns around and goes “Surprise! You were right! He isn’t perfect!” Which is me being silly about it, but I really did like it. Barring your barricade boy of choice, the Bishop is the nearest thing this book has to a Perfect, Literally Flawless character. To suddenly be like “Nope, sorry, he’s flawed too (and this time I actually mean it, it’s not just you being all 21st century feminist and annoyed about his sister)” makes Hugo deserve a good slow clap, in my opinion. I also love the idea that when he redoubles his efforts, it’s because he’s been inspired by secular ideas, or at least someone who spouted them. High five, you can be good to people for reasons that aren’t religious. (This point is probably a little dubious - G did turn out to be religious after all, but I thought his ideas were still coming from secular reasoning.) 1.1.11 A Restriction More in the line of “Yeah, sorry guys, he really isn’t as great as I may have led you to believe”. Which is AWESOME. I wonder if, I don’t know, I really doubt it, but still, I wonder if the frustration we were starting to feel was at least a little intentional? Actually, no, no, I don’t think that. I think it’s meant to be this surprise to us that he is, in fact, not all that and a bag of chips. I did like the little justification here: “Let us remark, by the way, that the hatred of luxury is not an intelligent hatred. This hatred would involve the hatred of the arts. Nevertheless, in churchmen, luxury is wrong, except in connection with representations and ceremonies.” (Because priests should be hanging out with the poor and the suffering, and it should rub off on him.) Just, you know, as a person who enjoys both charity and luxury and struggles with finding the line between them sometimes, especially once the arts get involved. As a Baptistine fan, I am glad to hear that there are two other brothers who should could potentially be staying with (since there’s no real indication to the contrary) because it convinces me that she really is with Myriel because she wants to be. I mean, I know we’ve been told this a few times by now, but there’s wanting to live with someone when you have no other choice and wanting to live with someone when you could be living in relative luxury, you know? I don’t know, I’m just so protective of Baptistine. I think because she spends so much time being a moon to reflect the brightness of her brother’s sun, which she seems perfectly happy to do, but I still want to reach through the pages of my book and shake her and say “YOUR STORY IS WORTH HEARING TOO OKAY YOU LET THAT M. HUGO KNOW THAT OKAY I mean I guess it’s not in the context of this story because it’s not like you were the one who let some dirty hobo run off the cutlery BUT WHATEVER BAPTISTINE YOU IS KIND YOU IS IMPORTANT” And a final high five to the Bishop for looking after blokes with different political beliefs, because that’s not as common as it should be, and I am choosing to believe he reproved him about when was and wasn’t a good time to talk politics, not about his politics. 1.1.12 The Solitude of Monseigneur Welcome I really hope we get a chapter where I have strong opinions again soon. Because once again, here we have, yep, sure thing, Hugo. Church folk church-ing for their own glory rather than God’s, yep, that’s pretty rubbish, success is mostly determined by luck, yep, so it seems, probably even more so in 1815 than in 2013. Stuff like this, I’m just like, aw, Hugo, you just wanted to have a blog, didn’t you? But you couldn’t, so you had to put in these kind of pointless chapters. Bless. Commentary Pilferingapples "You just wanted to have a blog" I am slain. Please, don’t stop commenting, this fun is as useful as the useful, here, especially if we’re going to make it through The Digressions.